The Effect of Occult Development Upon the Self and the Sheaths of Man

Schmidt Number: S-2752

On-line since: 31st August, 2012

LECTURE X.

W

E
have seen that as the result of serious theosophical training,
or esoteric occult development, changes come about in the four
principal parts of the human being; and you may have observed
that in the descriptions we have given the principal stress has
been laid upon the inward change in these four parts of human
nature, or the changes which are, to a certain extent,
experienced inwardly. But we have to distinguish clearly
between this change to be experienced inwardly, and the
description of the outer changes manifest to the vision of the
seer, which is, of course, quite different. In true esoteric
development it is very important to know what takes place
within man, and what is in front of him, when he goes through
occult development. Interesting, also, although perhaps not so
important, is the change outwardly visible to the seer. To sum
up in a few words, we might say: that which is perceived
inwardly as a sort of ‘becoming more mobile’ and
‘becoming more independent’ of the various parts of
the physical body, manifests itself to the clairvoyant vision,
which does not experience the changes in the physical body from
within, but looks upon them from without, in such a manner that
the physical body of a person undergoing occult development is
seen to split up, to divide, in a certain sense; and because of
this splitting-up, clairvoyant-vision feels it to be
separating. To clairvoyant vision the physical body of a person
who is steadily advancing in occult development is actually
seen to grow. And we may say that if at one time we meet a
person who is undergoing a true occult development, that which
the clairvoyant vision sees at a definite time as the physical
body has a definite size; if we meet him again a few years
later his physical body has grown; it has become decidedly
larger. Thus there is such a thing as the growth of the
physical body beyond the normal physical size, but with this is
connected the fact that it becomes more shadowy. Thus we notice
that as the person develops, his physical body is seen to
become larger and larger. It consists, however, of various
parts, as it were, and these manifest themselves in what in
occult life is called ‘Imagination.’ The physical
body of a person undergoing occult development manifests more
and more as a number of imaginations, of pictures which are in
a sense inwardly alive and active, and are, or rather become,
more and more interesting; for they are not just anything we
please. When the person is beginning his development the
pictures are not specially significant; and they are least so
when the clairvoyant vision observes the body of a person who
has not yet developed in occultism. In this latter case a
number of pictures, a number of imaginations are perceived. To
clairvoyant vision the physical substance disappears, and in
its place appear imaginations: but these are so pressed
together that instead of the pleasing inwardly shining aspect
of a person engaged in occult development, they manifest as in
an opaque substance. Even, however, in the case of a person who
is not yet developed they are to be seen, and indeed as parts
and each part signifies something in the macrocosm. Essentially
one can distinguish twelve parts, each of which is really a
picture — a painting of one part of the great cosmos.
When all twelve are assembled together, the impression is given
that some unknown painter has produced miniature pictures of
the macrocosm, twelve in number, and from these has formed the
physical human body. Now, when the individual is engaged in
occult development, this picture grows larger and larger, and
also appears inwardly more and more pleasing, radiant from
within. This is because, in the case of an individual not
engaged in occult development, the macrocosm is only reflected
in its physical aspect; but in the case of one undergoing an
occult development the spiritual content more and more
manifests itself; the pictures of the spiritual essence of the
macrocosm are to be seen. Thus occult development also shows us
that a person engaged in an occult development, from being
merely a physical microcosm, becomes more and more a spiritual
one, that is, he manifests within himself more and more, not
merely the pictures of planets and suns, but of entities
belonging to the Higher Hierarchies. That is the difference
between persons engaged and others not engaged in occult
development. The more a person presses forward in occult
development the more exalted are the Hierarchies manifesting
within him. And thus we learn the structure of the world, as it
were, by clairvoyantly observing the physical human body.

The
human etheric body of one who is not undergoing occult
development manifests the progressive course of the world, that
which follows consecutively in time; it shows how planets and
suns, even the human civilisations on earth, and the individual
human beings alter in the course of their incarnations, and how
they appear in consecutive stages of growth. Thus the etheric
body may truly be called a narrator; it recounts the story of
the growth of the world. While the physical body of man is like
a sum-total of pictures painted by an unknown artist, the
etheric body proves to be a kind of story-teller who narrates
in its own inner happenings the story of the world itself. And
the more deeply a person is engaged in occult development, the
wider the range of the stories. The etheric body of a person
who has undergone comparatively little occult development
manifests to the clairvoyant vision perhaps only a few
generations which have preceded him in physical ancestry
— for this development is still also shown in the etheric
body of man. But the further a person carries his occult
development, the more possible it becomes to see in his etheric
body the various civilisations of humanity, the various
incarnations of this or that individuality; yea, even to ascend
to cosmic development and see the share of the Spirits of the
Higher Hierarchies in it.

The
astral body of man — which to ordinary observation can
only be seen, as it were, through its inner reflection, through
experiences of thought, will and feeling — becomes more
and more an expression of the value of man, with respect to his
essential entity in the cosmos. I want you to consider this
description, this presentation, as being of very special
significance. The astral body of a human being undergoing an
occult development becomes more and more the expression of his
value in the cosmos. In a previous lecture we showed how we
discover that the astral body, in its original nature, is a
sort of egotist, and that this has to be overcome in occult
development, raising the personal interests to those of the
world. Observing the astral body of a person engaged in higher
development one can see from it, according to whether it
appears dark and dull or has an inner illumination, according
to its revelation of itself in shrill dissonances or in
harmonious melodious tones, whether the person in question has
so conducted his development that he is still entangled in his
personal interests, of which we have spoken, or whether he has
really made the interests of the world his own. This is what
can be seen from the astral body of a human personality engaged
in higher development: when the development goes on in a true,
occult, ethical manner, we see in him how wonderful man becomes
through extending the horizon of his interests from those that
are personal to those that are universally human, and into the
common aims of the world. The astral body becomes more radiant,
shines more and more like a radiant sun, as the human being
learns to make the affairs of all humanity and the world his
own.

The
further the human being progresses in his development, the more
the Self manifests the tendency to split up, to divide. It
sends out, as it were, the contents of its consciousness, and
these make ‘messenger paths’ in the world. If, for
example, a human being wishes to learn to know a being
belonging to the Hierarchy of the Angels, it is not sufficient
for him to exercise the ordinary forces of perception; if he
really wishes to know this being he must be able to transfer
his consciousness; that is, he must be able to separate the
forces of his Self and transpose a part of his
self-consciousness into the being of the Angel. Whatever sort
of being we wish to know, we can only do it by transposing our
self-consciousness into this being. It is the impulse of the
Self to go out of itself, to transpose itself into the other
being and allow that which at first lived only in oneself to
enter the life of the other being. At a lower stage in the
development of the human being, at the stage of ordinary human
existence, this manifests as a certain impulse to remove its
consciousness out of itself; this can be seen in the need for
sleep. And that which psychically drives man to sleep is
exactly the same that in higher development directs the
consciousness, not into the unconscious world of sleep, but
into the consciousness of the Angels or the Spirits of Form or
still Higher Hierarchies. Thus one might be paradoxical by
inquiring: What does it imply when a man becomes acquainted
with one of the Elohim, one of the Spirits of Form? It means
that he has developed so far that he is able to sleep over into
the consciousness of the Elohim and to awaken within the
Elohim, possessing the consciousness of this Spirit of Form, of
this spirit belonging to the Higher Hierarchies. This is
recognition of a higher being: consciousness must be resigned
as in sleep, but so resigned that by reason of the higher
forces awakened within, it reawakens and radiates towards us as
the consciousness of the higher being. Thus, an astral body
under true occult development becomes like a sun which radiates
its world-interests; but when the Self is more highly developed
it becomes like the planets which circle round the sun of the
astral body, and which, in their circling through the world,
meet other beings, and by means of this bring messages from
them to the perceptive nature of man. Thus the astral body and
the Self of a human being undergoing occult development present
the picture of a sun — which is the astral body —
surrounded by its planets — that are a number of
multiplications of the Self, sent out into other beings in
order that the student through that which his multiplied Self
rays back to him from these other beings may know their
nature.

The
feeling we have when becoming acquainted with the inner nature
of the members of the Higher Hierarchies (we learn to recognise
their external being through the physical body and the etheric
body; and to recognise them inwardly through the astral body
and the Self, we come into communication, as it were, with
these beings who belong to the Higher Hierarchies through the
astral body and Self) — the feeling we have is as though
we had to make our self in our astral body into a sun and to
separate from oneself, a Self capable of active participation
in the nature of the Hierarchy of the Angels; another Self
which has that gift as regards the Hierarchy of the Archangels;
and yet another Self which has the gift with regard to the
Hierarchy of the Spirits of Form. A fourth Self participates in
the nature of the Hierarchy of the Spirits of Motion, a fifth
in that of the Hierarchy of the Spirits of Wisdom and of Will,
a sixth Self or Ego in that of the Hierarchy of the Cherubim,
and a seventh in that of the Hierarchy of the Seraphim. It is
possible for a person, when he develops the four parts of his
being and continues this development to a high stage, actually
to attain to the experience we have just described. This is
possible; and in addition to this development of his Self in
the manner I have just indicated, he can attain to a still
higher development of his Self.

For
through the separation of seven selves from the eighth Self,
this eighth self, which remains behind, undergoes a higher
development. Consider the matter in this way: We have the
original Self of man, which is given to him before he undergoes
occult development. He then undergoes this, and thereby sends
forth from himself seven Selves. In order that the Self
originally given him may be able to send forth seven Selves he
has to exercise an inner force, the result of which is that the
Self rises a stage higher. But now I want you to reflect that
the process which I have described in its most extreme
development, as it were, only comes about gradually. A person
undergoing occult development does not, of course, at once
become a perfect Sun in — the astral body, surrounded by
the planets of his Selves, but he first attains to an imperfect
Sun existence, and imperfect developments of his planetary
Selves; all this takes place gradually. And, at the same time,
the development of the ordinary Self into the Higher Self takes
place slowly and gradually. When this development has reached a
definite stage, when the Self has reached higher and higher
attainment, then gradually comes the power to look back at
former incarnations. This is the stage which gives one the
power to look back to previous incarnations; it is the
development of the Self beyond itself, the attainment of forces
beyond itself, which give it at the same time power truly to
understand higher Hierarchies. We might say that, to
clairvoyant vision, a person, through occult development, with
respect to his Self and his astral body, becomes star-like
— similar to a starry system.

In
the above I have briefly described what is presented to another
person who is becoming clairvoyant, whereas in the previous
lectures I spoke more of the inward experiences. There is still
something important which I have to lay before you, which is to
amplify an indication already made. When the student develops
his astral body and his Self he attains, as you have heard, to
observation of a world, previously empty, now filled with the
beings of the Higher Hierarchies, Angels, Archangels, Archai,
etc.

The
question might now be asked: Do the kingdoms of nature around
man also change? Yes; the kingdoms of nature do very materially
change. I have already mentioned that, to the vision of a
clairvoyant, the physical body, even of an ordinary person,
presents the appearance of a number of paintings, and these
shine more and more within the more the person progresses. Now,
how does the case stand with the animals? When with clairvoyant
vision we look at an animal its physical body also changes into
Imaginations, and then we know that these animals are not what
they appear to be in maya, but are imaginations: that is, they
are imaginations, conceived in a consciousness. Who, then,
conceives the animals as imaginations? Whose imaginations are
they? Animals, also plants in their outward forms —
though plants less than animals, and least of all minerals
— are imaginations of Ahriman. Our physicists seek for
the material laws in the external kingdoms of nature; but the
occultist comes more and more to the knowledge that the
external kingdoms of nature, as far as they present themselves
as material beings, are imaginations of Ahriman. We know,
indeed, that behind the animals, for example, are the
Group-Souls. The Group-Souls are not imaginations of Ahriman,
but the separate individual animals in their external forms are
imaginations of Ahriman. Thus, if we take the lion-tribe; the
group-soul of this species belongs to the good spiritual
beings, as it were, and the war of Ahriman against the good
spiritual beings consists in his pressing their group-souls
into the separate individual forms of the animals and
imprinting upon them his own imaginations. The separate
lion-forms, as they move about outwardly in the world, are
forced out of the group-souls by Ahriman. Thus the external
world which surrounds us also changes gradually into something
quite different from its appearance in maya.

Now, in order that you may have something on which you may
range as on the steps of a ladder the thoughts which have been
opened to us in the course of these lectures, I will give you a
sort of diagram.

Here
on the left I will represent what we may call the constitution
of the ordinary man: Physical body, Etheric body, Astral body,
Sentient soul, Intellectual soul, Consciousness soul, Spirit
Self, Life Spirit and Spirit Man. We know this as the
constitution of man. I will represent this only by lines. The
inner being would be the Sentient soul, the next, the
Intellectual or Mind soul, the next, the Consciousness soul,
the next would be Spirit Self. The higher parts may be left out
of account, as we do not need to consider them to-day. This
constitution of man so manifests itself externally that the
bodily part consists of the three lower principles; that which
is experienced in the soul, of the three middle ones; the
Spirit Self is not present in man, except as a perspective of
the future, as it were. Now, when a person undergoes occult
development the first thing to be done is to suppress certain
things in the soul itself. We have seen that it is particularly
important for the student to be able to lay aside the external
sense impressions. It is, indeed, the first requirement of true
occult progress that the student should lay aside external
sense impressions. Now through this laying aside of external
impressions of the senses, that principle of the soul which is
chiefly developed under the influence of these impressions,
namely, the Consciousness Soul, changes inwardly. It must be
clearly understood that the Consciousness Soul is at present
undergoing its chief development, because so much value is now
attached to the external impressions of the senses. You must
not confuse the fact that the Consciousness Soul generally is
inwardly strengthened by the impressions received through the
senses, with the fact that these sense impressions are
transmitted through the Sentient Soul. When we are dealing with
occult development we must notice under what sort of influences
the Consciousness Soul is most strengthened, and we find these
to be the external sense impressions. When these are laid aside
the Consciousness Soul is then suppressed, so that in the one
who is undergoing occult development it is the Consciousness
Soul which must first of all retire into the background. (Here,
on the right, I will draw that which in the occultly developing
man corresponds to the several parts of the soul.) We are
speaking of that which in ordinary life leads a person to
emphasise his ‘ego,’ which above all leads him to
lay stress upon his ego in all sorts of directions. In our age
special stress is laid upon this ego or ‘I’ in the
direction of thought. One hears nothing more often said than
— this is my standpoint, I think this or that — as
though the opinion of this or that person had any significance
compared with the truth. It is true that the sum of the three
angles of a triangle is 180 degrees, and it is immaterial how a
person regards it. It is true that the Hierarchies, counting
from man upwards, are divided into three times three, and it is
quite immaterial how this truth is regarded. Insistence upon
the ego retires into the background, and in its place the
Consciousness Soul, which previously served principally for the
development of the ego, is gradually filled with what we call
‘Imaginations.’ We may simply say that when a
person develops his Consciousness Soul is changed into the
Imaginative Soul.

We
also know from what has been said in the previous lectures that
thinking itself, which is developed principally in the
Intellectual or Mind Soul, must also be changed. We have heard
that thinking must more and more give up developing its own
thoughts, that it must more and more suppress personal
thinking; the human personality suppressing its own thought.
When the student is able to suppress that which in his ordinary
life he has made of his Intellectual or Mind Soul, then in the
place of that which exists in him as ordinary thinking, as
reason, and also as the ordinary mental life on the physical
plane, comes Inspiration. The Intellectual or Mind Soul changes
into the Inspirational or Inspired Soul. The inspired works of
culture have been received in the transformed Intellectual Soul
as Inspiration.

The
sentient soul is chiefly laid aside by overcoming the astral
body, by making the world-interests one's own, and thereby
rising more and more above personal feelings; the sentient soul
thereby changes; and all the inner impulses, »•inner
passions and emotions, change into Intuitions; and in the place
of the Sentient Soul appears the Intuition Soul. So that here
on the right (see diagram I.) we may sketch the developed human
being, of whom we say: He consists of astral body, etheric body
and physical body but inwardly of the Intuitional Soul, the
Inspirational Soul, and the Imaginative Soul which then changes
into Spirit Self. And now from this diagram, which reflects
truly the facts of occult observation, you may gather from the
results of these lectures how a person influences his occult
development by the degree of his moral development. For what is
a person who is still absolutely filled with personal emotions
and passions, and who acts under the impressions of what we
might call human instincts? Such a person still lives entirely
in his Sentient Soul; he does not moderate his instincts by
means of intellectual ideas, or by means of the development of
his consciousness; he has only developed, as it were, as far as
the Sentient Soul here, if I might now indicate the moral
development in the middle (small arrow in diagram). Thus we may
have the case of a person who has only developed as far as the
Sentient Soul; that is to say, he is ruled entirely by his
personal passions, impulses, etc. Now let us suppose that such
a person were forced on by occult development. The consequence
would be the transformation of his Sentient Soul into his
Intuitional Soul, and he would have certain intuitions; these
intuitions would, however, represent nothing but the
transformations of his own personal impulses, passions and
instincts.

A
man who in his moral development has progressed to the
Intellectual Soul, that is, one who has acquired pure
conceptions, more general universal ideas, whose inner feelings
include feelings of interest in the whole world, such a one
will at least transmute his Intellectual or Mind Soul into the
Inspirational Soul, and he can arrive at certain inspirations,
although his clairvoyant power may not be always quite pure as
yet. But it is only when a person has really penetrated with
his ego as far as the Consciousness Soul that he arrives at the
transformation of his Consciousness Soul into Imaginative Soul,
and the rest follows as a self-evident consequence, because he
has passed through the other stages. Hence in our age, in order
to arrive at true clairvoyance, the student must be given the
task of so working at his moral development that he shall first
take away from his impulses, passions, etc., all that is
personal, and raise himself to the standpoint of making the
interests common to the whole world his own. Then the endeavour
must be made to teach him really to comprehend himself as
‘I;’ but he must feel this in the Consciousness
Soul. Then the Sentient Soul, the Intellectual Soul and the
Consciousness Soul may be transformed into the Souls of
Intuition, Inspiration and Imagination without any danger. When
we consider the ordinary consciousness on the physical plane
the Sentient Soul is the richest Soul. For what a number of
instincts and impulses does not such a human Soul conceal,
however low its stage! Of what impulses and passions is not
such a human soul capable! The human soul is somewhat poorer as
regards the contents of intellect and its more cultivated
feelings, poorest of all as Consciousness Soul, shrivelled up
to the consciousness of the self, as though to one point. One
might say that the figure which represents the human soul in
its natural condition on the physical plane would be a sort of
pyramid (see diagram II.). In the lower part, at the base, the
sum total of impulse, desires and passions; at the top, at the
summit, the point of consciousness. A reversed pyramid
represents the developed soul of the true clairvoyant, a
pyramid having its base above, that is, all possible kinds of
imaginations which can be formed, which express all that can
reflect for us the contents of the cosmos; here below as the
point, that which results as the higher individual
consciousness of man.

This
diagram is a standard, to a certain extent, in another sense.
In the new edition of my book Theosophy I have said that the
Sentient Soul is, as it were, the provisionally transformed
astral body, so that we may sum up thus: Below is the physical
body, then the etheric body, then the astral body. The astral
body on its way to transformation is the Sentient Soul on the
physical plane; the etheric body so proceeding is the
Intellectual or Mind Soul, and the physical body the
Consciousness Soul.

Thus in our present cycle of humanity we have the Consciousness
Soul localised in the physical body; that is to say, it makes
use of the physical instrument. The Intellectual Soul is in the
etheric body; that is, it makes use of the etheric movements.
The Sentient Soul, containing the impulses, desires and
passions, makes use of the forces localised in the astral body.
The Soul of Intellect or Mind, which contains the forces of
inner feeling, of sympathy, makes use of the etheric body; the
Consciousness Soul uses the brain of the physical body.

As
in this sense the Sentient Soul is transformed into the
Intuitional Soul, we must also correspondingly imagine that the
Intuitional Soul uses the astral body of man as its instrument.
The Inspirational Soul is the transformed Intellectual or Mind
Soul; its instrument is the etheric body of man. And the
Imaginative Soul, the transformed Consciousness Soul, has as
its instrument the physical body of man. And now, if you
compare what I have presented here in diagram with what I have
said previously, you will become aware that in this diagram you
have a memory picture. I mentioned that to clairvoyant vision
the physical body is transformed into imaginations, which are
pictures of the macrocosm. In this diagram you see that the
Imaginative Soul fills up the physical body. The Imaginative
Soul actually enters into the physical body and permeates it,
so that when a developed human being is observed by clairvoyant
consciousness, the parts of the physical body are seen to be
permeated with higher and higher imaginations, according to the
degree of his development; these are impressed into the
physical body by the inner being of this personality. In an
ordinary individual there are a number of imaginations
imprinted in the various principles of his body by higher
spiritual beings; in a more highly developed man there appear
in the various parts of his physical body, in addition to the
imaginations originally there, others which he imprints into
the parts of his body from his own inner being, so that the
organs in the physical body of a developed human being become
richer and richer.

In
this diagram I wished to give you a sort of précis which
sums up what I have described at length in these lectures. I
specially draw your attention to this: that this diagram may
always remind you that the Sentient Soul, the Intellectual or
Mind Soul and the Consciousness Soul are reversed, so that the
Consciousness Soul does not become the Intuitional Soul but the
Imaginative Soul; and the Sentient Soul does not become the
Imaginative Soul but the Intuitional Soul. In this you have a
sketch of what could be given in the course of these lectures
under the title of: The changes in the human sheaths and the
human self in the course of a seriously conducted theosophical
development, or an esoteric occult development — which,
indeed, fundamentally may coincide.

You
will have observed that we began with the tiny, almost
imperceptible, changes in the physical body, which the student
who is developing at first perceives but faintly: the various
parts of the physical body become more and more inwardly
living, while usually only the whole physical body of man
appears to us as a living thing. We then saw how certain
changes take place, presenting the mighty facts of the inner
life, changes in the astral body and the Self providing those
mighty imaginations through which we may feel ourselves
transposed to the beginning of our earthly human development;
yet even further back, for they lead to the Imaginations of
Paradise, and of Cain and Abel. You have seen how, in fact,
there arises as a reality in the physical body a sort of force
which enables it to divide, as it were — but still it
holds together; it does not give way, because here, in our
present cycle of humanity, occult training may not go so far as
to lead to the injury of the physical body — still there
is, however, a degree of occult development which leads to the
possibility that the physical body and the etheric body may
draw to themselves inwardly destructive forces; and this danger
is always present when a person meets the Guardian of the
Threshold. This meeting with the Guardian of the Threshold is
not possible without being confronted by the danger of
implanting destructive forces in the physical and etheric
bodies; but every true occult development provides the remedies
at the same time, and these remedies are given in that which
you find described in my book,
Occult Science,
as the six auxiliary occult exercises: Concentration of thought;
that is, strenuous exertion of thought, the concentrated gathering
together of thoughts; the development of a certain Initiative
of Will; a certain Equilibrium of joy and sorrow, a certain
Positivity in relation to the world, a certain Impartiality.
The student who endeavours to develop these qualities in his
soul parallel with his occult development, on the one hand
certainly produces in himself a sort of effort to break the
physical and etheric bodies to pieces, that is, under the
influence of occult development to take in the seed of death;
but to the same extent that this develops it is annulled, so
that it is never really active when a person develops the
qualities mentioned, or when through his moral development he
already possesses the qualities equivalent to these six. It has
been my endeavour to give you more than a mere description of
what occult development is, namely, to rouse in your hearts a
feeling of what it is, and what manifold changes it produces in
a human being. You may have been able to divine and feel that a
person has to meet much that is terrible and also much that is
dangerous when he goes through occult development; but side by
side with much that, even in this theoretical manner of
considering the matter may have produced a certain amount of
dread, we must always call to mind the thought which dispels
all dread, can take away all fear of danger, simply arousing
enthusiasm and strength of will within our souls — the
thought that by developing ourselves further we are thus
working actively at one part of the evolution willed by the
Gods. A man who knows how to grasp this thought in all its
greatness, and take into himself its stimulus and feel it with
enthusiasm, and who forms this thought in such a manner that it
presents evolution, or occult development in its most beautiful
sense, as his duty, he is one who feels the beginning of that
which, side by side with all danger, all fighting, all
entanglements, all hindrances, is connected with all
development, namely, the approach towards the beatitude of the
spiritual worlds. For when he feels this thought of the
enthusiasm-producing power of the ideal of development he may
already begin to feel the bliss of development; but this means
to recognise the development, the occult progress as a
necessity. The future of such spiritual, esoteric movements as
ours will be that the spiritual development of human souls will
be regarded more and more as a necessity, and that the
exclusion of spiritual development and the adoption of a
hostile attitude towards it will signify a union with the
earthly dross, which is cast out through its own weight, a
union with what has fallen away from the God-willed evolution
of the universe.